Airlines and Travel Businesses Can Get on Board with SAP® Hybris® Solutions

October 13, 2016: SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced general availability of the new SAP® Hybris® Commerce, travel accelerator, designed to meet the demands of the digitally connected traveler. This expands SAP’s ongoing strategy to develop industry-specific accelerators of its commerce platform, which already includes telecommunications, financial services and media. The solution helps travel providers seamlessly connect with customers by using real-time information to offer personalized customer experiences and to reinforce customer loyalty. This announcement was made at the SAP Hybris Americas Summit event, being held in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, on October 12–14, 2016.

The travel industry is seeing a drastic change in the way consumers research and shop for their travel needs. Hyperconnected travelers expect a consistent experience across any communications device they are using. At the same time, travel brands are looking to sell more “ancillaries” in a bundle, along with the original core travel product. They also want to proactively engage with their customers in a contextually relevant way. This industry shift presents a new opportunity to foster real-time, personalized engagements between travel brands and their customers.

This approach, however, requires data flow among marketing, commerce and customer systems. Traditional reservation systems are not digital-friendly, due to disparate systems storing data in silos. The travel accelerator for SAP Hybris Commerce meets this demand, enabling travel businesses to deploy the SAP Hybris Commerce solution and integrate digital and physical customer touchpoints into a single platform.

The travel accelerator for SAP Hybris Commerce is available to help traditional businesses connect various systems for a cohesive customer experience across devices and social channels. It also enables emerging e-commerce brands to develop new business models that are challenging traditional room, taxi or travel systems.

“Today’s travelers increasingly use digital channels to research, buy, use and share travel experiences. They expect a seamless experience throughout their travel journey and across all touchpoints — offline and online,” said Brian Walker, chief strategy officer at SAP Hybris.* “Today’s travel companies need a solution that powers that, and SAP Hybris accelerators provide the industry-specific data model and core functionality needed for customers to deploy their travel industry projects, and — as in the case of the new commerce solution for travel — retail-like travel merchandising capabilities that meet contemporary travel businesses demands and help them grow their business.”

For example, airlines can use the solution to:

Integrate external content from partners like hotels, car rentals, insurances, ground transportation, events and activities with a single view of customer bookings

Integrate existing back-office and revenue accounting, along with customer relationship management, business intelligence and loyalty systems

With this new travel industry–specific commerce solution, hoteliers, cruise and rail operators, car rental services and tour operators can now address the challenge of providing a consistent customer experience across digital and physical channels, while maintaining consistent pricing and promotions.